Thursday, 12 May 2016

Review 12th May 2016

URMSTON CHORAL
SOCIETYSt Monica’s Church, Flixton

Gareth Curtis’s
Reflections, which received its world premiere in the 75th
anniversary concert of Urmston Choral Society under Julie Parker’s direction last
night, is a fine and effective work that could make itself at home with many other
moderate-sized choral groups.

Written for SATB (with
a little division of parts but also many impactful unisons), with soprano and
baritone soloists (Margo Campbell and Maurice Rushby) and piano duet accompaniment
(on this occasion Miriam Graham and the composer), plus a speaker (Margaret
Curtis), it has four movements and fills around 50 minutes.

It’s based on texts
from the Latin mass – the traditional Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and the final ‘Ite,
Missa Est … Deo Gracias’ – with additional words, spoken and sung and mainly
from the Bible, which reflect on the meaning of the liturgy, as if we are
overhearing the silent readings and meditations of the gathered worshippers.

Gareth Curtis’s
writing is direct and accessible, itself reflecting an eclectic mix of styles,
with bell-like clusters and plainsong lines at the beginning and end, two
engaging march rhythms for choral passages (and something like a samba at ‘Pleni
sunt caeli …’), and a touch of Messianesque chording to introduce the Sanctus.

There are rich, smooth
harmonies for the choralists to enjoy (a beautiful one to end ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’),
lovely circling melody lines for the soloists (and hidden in the accompaniment to
the spoken part of the Agnus Dei), while the final movement builds a jazzy head
of steam, with well calculated highpoints using the performers’ combined resources
to the full.

In some ways it’s in
the tradition of the 1960s Christian ‘jazz cantatas’ by Malcolm Williamson and
others – in many it transcends them and points towards a deep individual experience
of Christian worship.